Alexandra Cordes
Alexandra Cordes was a prolific German writer of mainly romantic fiction, many of whose books were best-sellers. Cordes was married to the fellow novelist Michael Horbach, who encouraged her to write. However her novels outsold his own. She was estimated to have 15 million books sold, while Horback had sales of about 4 million books.
In October 1986, Horbach shot his wife in the head with a revolver from his weapon collection. He then shot himself in an apparent murder-suicide attempt. He died after a week in intensive care.
Life
Ursula Schaake was born in Bonn, Germany, of Huguenot descent. After finishing school she worked in the Bonn office of the Times newspaper. Afterwards she worked as a journalist for a number of German newspapers, including the "Welt" and the "Hamburger Abendblatt".In 1958, she married Michael Horbach, a journalist and novelist, who encouraged her to write. She started by writing serials in women's magazines, which were later published in book form. The books sold well, so that by the time of her 59th book she had a turnover of 15 million books sold. This eclipsed the turnover of her husband, who had over four million books sold, over a much longer period.
In the 1970s, the childless couple moved to Châteauneuf-du-Pape in the Provence. On the night of 27 October 1986, Michael Horbach shot his wife in the head, killing her, with a revolver from his weapon collection. He shot himself a few hours later and died after a week in intensive care.